MTA chief Prendergast faces long 'to-do' list

Thomas Prendergast, the president of New York City Transit, has been nominated to lead the state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

At a Crain's breakfast next month, newly installed Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast will deliver his first public address since assuming the helm of the nation's largest public transit system. With a plethora of difficulties facing the agency, from looming budget deficits to an unresolved union contract, the MTA veteran should have plenty of news, but not necessarily of the happy variety.

He will likely address the agency's goal of reducing operating expenses by $1.3 billion by 2017, the system's continuing recovery from Superstorm Sandy and its efforts to prepare for the next big storm. Mr. Prendergast will also face questions both on issues new to the MTA and on problems that have frustrated his predecessors. Mr. Prendergast will have the opportunity to define his mission not only to straphangers but to lawmakers who struggle to fund the $13.7 billion agency but not to condemn it.

"This is Tom Prendergast on the edge," said Gene Russianoff, chief spokesman of the Straphangers Campaign, who cited increases in ridership, expired labor contracts with transit workers and transparency issues as among Mr. Prendergast's challenges.

Mr. Prendergast, the former president of New York City Transit, was nominated in mid-April by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and confirmed by the state Senate after a frustrating wait that ran into late June. An MTA insider, unlike his predecessor Joseph Lhota, who quit late last year to run for mayor, Mr. Prendergast has focused on bringing the system to a state of good repair, post-Sandy, and restoring service cuts while trimming operating expenses.

"To the extent that we can [restore service] in a stable manner, we want to keep doing that," said Adam Lisberg, chief spokesman for the MTA, referring to the agency's sometimes unpredictable finances.

The MTA's capital plan, meanwhile, presents a different set of concerns. The agency is engaged in a series of mega-projects, including the Second Avenue Subway, the Fulton Street station rehabilitation, the western extension of the No. 7 line, and East Side Access, connecting the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal.

Mr. Prendergast, whose speech is scheduled for Sept. 9, will need to figure out how to close the projected $10 billion to $15 billion gap in the agency's capital program. The closing of a similar deficit several years ago led to the creation of a controversial payroll tax and Democrats' loss of the state Senate majority in the 2010 elections.

The Transport Workers Union Local 100 has been working on an expired contract for 18 months, and the agency has been budgeting under the assumption of a net-zero labor increase. The union's leadership had kind words for Mr. Prendergast after he was nominated.

"It's a good move by Gov. Cuomo. Prendergast has vast knowledge of the system, and that's really what the MTA needs—not a bean counter like [previous MTA chief Jay] Walder or a person with big financial and political connections, like Lhota," a union spokesman told WNYC in April.

But the MTA says it can't afford raises without a greater contribution to health care costs by transit workers, something the Transport Workers Union will have difficulty stomaching.

Ridership is at its highest level since the late 1940s, and fares are increasing at a rate above inflation, which may soon prove to be unsustainable. The Independent Budget Office released a report this week theorizing that unlimited-ride monthly MetroCards could spike to $168 from the current $112 by 2023. Meanwhile, some lines are packing passengers in like proverbial sardines.

"I think 11 lines are at capacity at rush-hour," Mr. Russianoff said. "And some, like the Lexington line, are carrying 116% of what they're supposed to be carrying. So that's a pretty big challenge."

The MTA's one-swipe MetroCard is seen by many transit experts as an outdated and excessively costly fare-collection method. And while other city transit systems have moved on to permanent, rechargeable cards like Washington's SmarTrip, the MTA is waiting for the technology of payment systems to settle before replacing the MetroCard in 2019, Mr. Lisberg said.

As veteran of transit systems across the country for more than 30 years, Mr. Prendergast has spurred hopes that he can bring the MTA's budget under control while making repairs and dealing with those outstanding issues.

"He's in a unique position that his predecessors were not," said Tri-State Transportation Committee Executive Director Veronica Vanterpool. "He comes from within the agency, he's very experienced and he knows the nuts and bolts of the system. And that brings a lot of credibility."

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